New York: Fifty-five countries of the Asia-Pacific group at the United Nations unanimously endorsed India’s candidature for a non-permanent seat of the Security Council for a two-year term in 2021-2022. Thanking countries for backing India’s nomination, Syed Akbaruddin, India’s permanent representative at the UN, said, “A unanimous step. Asia-Pacific Group @UN unanimously endorses India’s candidature for a non-permanent seat of the Security Council for a 2-year term in 2021/22.”
Until now, India has been a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for seven terms: 1950-51, 1967-68, 1972-73, 1977-78, 1984-85, 1991-92 and most recently in 2011–2012 under the leadership of former Ambassador Hardeep Singh Puri. Elections for five non-permanent members of the 15-nation Council for the 2021-22 term will be held around June next year. Earlier this year, India had said that a majority of the UN members support the expansion of the permanent and non-permanent membership of the Security Council.
Akbaruddin cited the example of the Asia-Pacific group, where 52 states are vying for 2 non-permanent seats, while in the West European & Other Group states there are 25 members in the pool vying for 2 seats. “Put another way, there are more than 3 billion of we the people’ from Asia-Pacific seeking representation through 2 seats with a 2-year term, while people’ from no other region face such daunting challenges in seeking to be represented equitably, he said.
Each year the 193-member General Assembly elects five non-permanent members for a two-year term at the UN high-table. The five permanent members of the Council are China, France, Russia, UK and the US. The 10 non-permanent seats are distributed on a regional basis : five for African and Asian States; one for Eastern European States; two for the Latin American and Caribbean States; and two for Western European and other States.
Currently the 10 non-permanent members are Belgium, Cote d’Ivoire, Dominican Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Germany, Indonesia, Kuwait, Peru, Poland and South Africa.
India is at the forefront of efforts at the UN to push for the long-pending reform of the Security Council, emphasising that it rightly deserves a place at the UN high table as a permanent member.
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